Category Archives: Works in Progress

Wait, did I say ‘simple’?

I'm now three weeks into the knitting of hubby's new sweater. That's about the longest I can usually pay attention to a project - but I'm only through the sleeves! I think this proves a couple of rules of knitting for other people. 1: Don't underestimate how long things take to knit, and 2: If you let the recipient pick the pattern, be prepared to face the consequences! I did some pre-searching through all of my pattern books and found several all-over cable designs that were nice and rhythmic and easy to memorize. I presented these to my hubby, and his reaction was pretty dry. So I let him look through my books, and he picked quite possibly the most difficult cable pattern he could have! It's the Baroque Cable from Barbara Walker's third treasury.

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A sweater to dye for

I finally got some decent pictures of my Swish Bulky sweater! This is not only to show that I did make said sweater, but to immortalize its temporary whiteness. You see, I'm really, really good at turning white clothes pink. I don't really have problems with any other color of clothing, but white things just don't stay white. So, in order to prevent my inevitable disappointment, I'm planning on dyeing my sweater. But I can't figure out what color to dye it - or what dye to use.

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A journey of 100,000 stitches…

Begins with a single slip knot! The yarn for hubby's sweater is here! I think he was even more excited than I was when I first opened the box on our couch. He grabbed it and took a deep whif of its woolly goodness. I've trained him well! Now for the fun part - designing the sweater!

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An exercise in Stash Management

It's no secret that I have a ridiculous stash. I've been fighting the dreaded SABLE (Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy) for some time now, and the only weapon I have is youth! But, barring medical advances that would have me able to knit productively till about 120 years old, I need to do something about my stash. What really spurred me on was the stash swap party we had last week. I had to go through my stash and get rid of stuff, and I was also determined to bring home less than I brought. But, I have to say that dumping out a comforter-bags' worth of stash all over my dining table was a bit of an eye-opener!

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Crochet addiction…and a contest!

Contest is over!  We'll contact the winners & and announce them on Monday 2/6   I've been addicted to crochet lately!  And it's all because of Brittany Tyler's excellent Bullseye pattern. <

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Let the madness – and sweaters – begin!

Well, I'm still not totally through figuring out what craziness is in store for me this year, but I know that it's going to involve a lot of sweaters. I really need to use up a good size chunk of my stash this year (for the sake of sanity), and sweaters are a darn good way to do that. But my first sweater is decidedly not a stash sweater. Over the holidays, my husband and I found ourselves shuffling among the crowds at the mall a little more frequently than we'd have liked. But one upside of that is that my husband got to see a lot of the mannequins decked out in their nice fancy sweaters. We kept passing by one window that had a lighly textured Aran type sweater in a creamy oatmeal color, and over time it really grew on him. Until finally, the question was asked - "can you make one for me?" WELL OF COURSE! WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO SOONER! I GET TO GET MORE YARN!!!(and also - he doesn't want me to buy one, but make one. Double score!)

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Intarsia gone wild!

In the past I've shared different techniques that I'm learning.  I finally tried Fair Isle last summer, which I absolutely love!  Also, I shared that my grandson wants a lego hat. (that decision was after I convinced him he didn't really want a skeleton hat!) After lots of research and asking all of you, I've decided there wasn't a hat pattern out there that fit my idea of what the hat should look like.  So, as is so usual for me, I did things the hard way!!  I've created a pattern! But the only way to get the pattern to look the way I wanted it to look, was to do intarsia, a technique I had yet to learn!  The hat is not done, but it's on its way! (I'll blog later with the complete hat on my grandson).

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Sibling Scarves

A friend of mine has two little girls age 9 and 7. I volunteered to knit each one a scarf figuring it would be a great way to use up some of my leftover fingering weight yarn. In my enthusiasm, I completely forgot about the possibility of sibling rivalry. So, I came up with a plan.

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Less than 2 weeks!

That's how much time I have to finish up the knitted gifts for my family's Christmas celebrations!  Eek! Luckily I was smart this year and started my biggest project first, which was a vest for my mom - I made Talia, a free pattern by SweaterBabe but I haven't got a good photo of it yet.  So with the big project out of the way, I'm left with a lot of smaller knitted gifts for 4 nieces & nephews. A month ago, I was told that my 7 year old nephew really wanted some fingerless gloves to match his new green & black bike. I really love the pattern Knucks - I've made a ton of them over the years so they're easy to whip out.  I used Swish DK in Black & Peapod.  

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